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One of the most anticipated shows of September's fashion season will be Clare Waight-Keller's debut as creative director of Givenchy. She joins from Chloe where her modern spin on feminine, retro inspirations ushered in sell-outs, sales spikes and a legion of cool women recruited as #ChloeGirls.

If a sixth sense for what women want to wear stood Waight-Keller in perfect stead for her role at Chloe, then it will be an instinct for striking at the juncture of chic-meets- cool which will seduce the Givenchy crowd. Today, the first hint of Waight-Keller's vision for the house founded by Hubert de Givenchy in 1952 was revealed in four portraits entitled Transformation Seduction.

In the images, which were shot by fashion photographer Steven Meisel in a New York manor house, new models models Meghan Roche, Saffron Vadher (who made her catwalk debut at Burberry's February 2017 show), Elias Bouremah and Kolton Bowen are pictured, the girls wearing fitted lace tops and the boys very little- just seen are their tuxedo trousers. Shown in black and white, it is in fact the cats which feature in each shot which take a starring role.

The teaser campaign imagery was introduced with a Hubert de Givenchy quote about his vision of the woman he designed for. "She has an extraordinary flair for looking dressed with practically nothing. She knows how to look in a mirror, pose, and make whatever she is wearing chic. And since simplicity is the only thing she likes, she is always faultlessly elegant.”

Clare Waight KellerCredit:
Givenchy

Anyone versed in equations of going-viral-on-Instagram probability will understand that the cats are a clever addition to proceedings but Waight-Keller found genuine reason to pick out them out as a detail for her first collection after she found a silk print of a cat with orange eyes from 1953 in the archive and was struck by her and Givenchy's mutual feline apprection. “I love the idea of a woman with a feline air,” she says. “A person may seem slightly reserved, but they have that serene, straightforward gaze. They’re seductive. You want to meet them, know more about them, and be like them. I wanted to play with that modern attitude and expression because I feel like it’s an apt metaphor for Givenchy’s current evolution.”

The fact that the collars which the cats- owned by the models- are wearing in the images will be available to buy will surely be, well, catnip to stylish pet owners the world over.

The release of the portraits coincides with the announcement that Waight-Keller's debut collection will include both menswear and womenswear. "To me, Givenchy is a world where women and men alike are strong, stoic and mysterious. They own their power, and share it equally,” she comments.

Under Riccardo Tisci, Waight-Keller's predecessor, the Givenchy look had become eclectic, spanning sportswear to opulent fringing on the red carpet. But Transformation Seduction suggests a a return to the starkly elegant designs with which Givenchy made his name, and which were beloved of Audrey Hepburn. “I love the simplicity of these portraits and the engaging directness of the subjects’ gaze,” Waight-Keller says. “It evokes the bold, powerful and very graphic quality Hubert de Givenchy gave to everything he designed.”